GLORY 38 Chicago Results: Vakhitov Retains, Machado Claims Tournament

On Friday, Feb. 24, GLORY kickboxing returned to The Windy City for GLORY 38: Chicago.

In the night’s main event, light heavyweight titleholder Artem Vakhitov put his belt on the line against No. 1 contender and former champion Saulo Cavalari. The pair had met twice previously with Cavalari edging Vakhitov by split decision at GLORY 20 and Vakhitov outlasting Cavalari at GLORY 28 to capture the title. Since then, Russia’s Vakhitov has defended the belt against Zack Mwekassa and Brazil’s Cavalari has topped Brian Douwes to set up the rubber match.

Also on the night’s main card, a one-night, four-man light heavyweight contender tournament featured France’s Zinedine Hameur-Lain against Brian Collette in one side of the bracket, while Danyo Ilunga looked to bounce back from his “Fight of the Year” battle with Michael Duut as he took on Brazil’s Ariel Machado on the other side of the bracket.

In the SuperFight Series, former heavyweight title challengers Benjamin Adegbuyi and Anderson Silva locked horns, Romania’s Cătălin Moroșanu made his promotional debut against Maurice Greene, and Murthel Groenhart clashed with Thailand’s Thongchai.

GLORY 38 took place from Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill. The main card aired live on ESPN3 at 10:30 p.m. ET. The SuperFight Series streamed live on UFC Fight Pass at 8 p.m. ET.

About The Author

Riley Kontek is a Chicago-land native that has been an addict of mixed martial arts since the first Chuck Liddell-Tito Ortiz encounter. He is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. In addition to that, he used to host a weekly radio show on MMA. His work has also appeared on The MMA Corner. Though he has no formal training in mixed martial arts, Riley is a master in the art of hockey fighting.